DISCOVERY OF A CORAL ISLAND 



some pointed to the sun, and asked by their gestures 

 about our coming thence, or hinted to us to be off again. 



" But with all their reverence toward their mysterious 

 guests, they became after a while quite familiar, and took 

 advantage of every opportunity to steal from us. Our 

 botanist gave his collecting-box to one of them to hold, 

 and, the moment his back was turned, off the native ran, 

 and a hard chase was required to recover it a most un- 

 dignified run on the part of the celestial. 



' While the men wore the maro, the equivalent of tight- 

 fitting breeches, six inches or less in length, the women 

 were attired in a simple bloomer costume, consisting 

 solely of a petticoat or apron, twelve to eighteen inches 

 long, made of a large number of slit cocoanut leaves, and 

 kept well oiled. Besides this they had on, as ornaments, 

 necklaces of shell or bone. The girls and boys were 

 dressed au naturel, after the style in the garden of Eden. 

 These primitive fashions, however, were not peculiar to 

 the group, being in vogue also in other parts of the 

 Pacific. 



" As a set-off against the geographical ignorance of 

 these islanders, we may state that Captain Hudson and 

 the best map-makers of the age knew nothing of the 

 existence of Bowditch Island until he discovered it; and 

 from him comes the name it bears, given in honor of the 

 celebrated author of Bowditch' 's Navigator as well as of 

 the translation of Laplace's Mecanique Celeste. 



" Notwithstanding all the products and all the attrac- 

 tions of a coral island, even in its best condition it is but 

 a miserable place for human development physical, 

 mental, or moral. There is poetry in every feature, but 

 the natives find this a poor substitute for the breadfruit 

 and yams of more favored lands. The cocoanut and 

 Pandanus are, in general, the only products of the vege- 

 table kingdom afforded for their sustenance, and fish, 

 shell-fish, and crabs from the reefs their only animal food. 

 Scanty too is the supply ; and infanticide is resorted to 

 in self-defence, where but a few years would otherwise 

 overstock the half a dozen square miles of which their 

 little world consists a world without rivers, without hills, 

 in the midst of salt water, with the most elevated point 

 but ten to twenty feet above high tide, and no part more 

 than three hundred yards from the ocean. 



219 



